How much does it cost to port a game to pc.Why r crappy pots been released to pc is it bec dev dont care anymore for pc or is it bec they r slacking in job.
good question, depends on the game. Some teams do it internally, some get external teams to do it. Like People Can Fly did the gears port for PC. It also really depends on whether they had it running on PC to begin with. I don't think anybody could give you a monetary figure. But publishers will try their hardest to spend the least to get a copy out for people to buy in the first 3 weeks and sell copies to make a profit.
well, i doubt it cost much, since the purpose of porting a game is to gain more profit, so developers spend small amount of money, and get a lot in return. but i think developers are getting lazier when it comes to pc ports. game companies like epic games made an average ports of gears of war on the pc, then when it doesn't sell well enough, they put the blame on piracy. i tend to wonder, is pc that bad to develop games on?
Assuming they don't add any extra features, I can't imagine it costs much. Especially when you consider that it is probably already up and running on the PC,and im sure its even easier for 360 games. It would be interesting to know how many people actually work on a typical PC port and what it usually cost...
Actually, I'd wager that a good port takes quite a bit more of an effort to make than most would think. A console-only title is designed and coded with only one or two hardware configurations in mind. In order to put out a decent port, the team has to make sure that the game is compatible and runs decently on a wide range of GPUs and CPUs, plus two different OS's (three if it comes out on mac.)
I disagree. The XBox was released by Microsoft, which means that games on XBox use almost the same DirectX libraries that the PC versions of the same games use. That essentially means that there's a Hardware Abstraction Layer there that separates the actual games from the hardware. All the game developers need to focus on (at least at first) is the DirectX libaries and the HAL. THey work on the quirks of each platform later.
As for PS3 and/or Wii games, well, they might require a fair amount more work to convert, depending on their architecture, and the graphics/audio libraries they use...
Actually, I'd wager that a good port takes quite a bit more of an effort to make than most would think. A console-only title is designed and coded with only one or two hardware configurations in mind. In order to put out a decent port, the team has to make sure that the game is compatible and runs decently on a wide range of GPUs and CPUs, plus two different OS's (three if it comes out on mac.) dos4gw82
I agree with dev-null, I can imagine a fair amount of work involved with porting from PS3 or wii (can't understand a port from Wii though, whats the point?), Xbox could be simpler as its Windows. Although in terms of how long it takes to develop the game, it would take a relatively short amount of time to port, and they could port it as they make the game?
Depends on numurous factors wether or not its ported over internally or leased out to an external party to do. But whatever Violition didnt spend alot for there port of Saints Row 2 anyway you look at it god awful.
Actually, I'd wager that a good port takes quite a bit more of an effort to make than most would think. A console-only title is designed and coded with only one or two hardware configurations in mind. In order to put out a decent port, the team has to make sure that the game is compatible and runs decently on a wide range of GPUs and CPUs, plus two different OS's (three if it comes out on mac.) dos4gw82
Yeah and that is when they get a no-name team to port it so they can pay them next to nothing... There is always a way to put out almost not money and make a ton from it.
Just curious...when some of you say "next to nothing" or "cheap"...how much do you actually mean? dnuggs40
I'd say it's safe to assume upper six figures spilling over into 7. I think it depends on how shoddily the code was written in the first place. If it's an experienced developer with talented programmers who use the full potential of DirectX, it's more than likely a fair bit less expensive than if a newbie developer released a game with unruly and disorganized code. As for PS3 -> PC, I haven't the slightest idea.
Technically speaking, a 360 - PC port is easy because they both use DirectX, however, most ports like that are done really badly because the 360's processor and graphics chip architecture are vastly different than a PC's, so although the same code will run, it won't be optimized.
There is no such thing as a "good port" because to make a game/any software run well on any system it needs to be optimized for that type of environment, requiring, essentially, an entire rewrite of the code. What would be nice is if developers made two engines that use the same framework designed for different systems (IE: Source Engine...gooooo Valve!)
...There is no such thing as a "good port" because to make a game/any software run well on any system it needs to be optimized for that type of environment, requiring, essentially, an entire rewrite of the code. What would be nice is if developers made two engines that use the same framework designed for different systems (IE: Source Engine...gooooo Valve!Thebettafish
Well look at what Capcom does these days. All of their games are now designed on the PC. So technically their console versions are the ports. Which is why their PC games SEEM like great ports. Because they're not ports at all in fact.
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